Fingers Crossed!!! Goddesschess Website May Soon Be Back Online

Updated January 12, 2013:

Well, I still am not quite sure how I did it - flying totally by the seat of my pants, but I did manage to get the April, 2011 version of Goddesschess BACK WHERE IT BELONGS ONLINE -- using my ancient Front Page program, that is, at www.goddesschess.com.  Hooray!!!!!  Unfortunately, the "Way Back Machine" tag seems to be on every single website page I looked at later on this laptop.  There must be a way to delete it wholesale from all of the myriad pages at Goddesschess, but I have no idea how.  I thought by deleting it on the "home" page that it would be wiped out on all pages.  Nope!  Damn!  But the main thing is that a version of the website IS BACK ONLINE where it belongs!

Thanks to an email received earlier today that suggested I visit the Way Back Machine again, I did, and lo and behold, there is now an even later version of Goddesschess, from May, 2012, available that sure wasn't there last Saturday when I was able to successfully fire up the old laptop and get her on my wireless network here at home.  So, I am trying to download that version right now into my Front Page program.  If successful, I will update the Goddesschess website with that "latest version" some time later today.  Fingers crossed, people!  I really have no fricking idea what the heck I'm doing!

Wouldn't you know it (perhaps Caissa is smiling upon me), yesterday morning I received an email from our former host -- you know, the one I did not pay to renew where I thought Mr. Don's most recent Goddesschess files might have been parked since they were not at the current host (damn!), and they were offering me a chance to renew for one year for 50% off and preserve whatever was there of the Goddesschess website.  So, I took them up on their offer.  Wel, I tried to.

Of course, nothing was easy!  I had to get a new password to pay the bill since my old one did not work; I emailed them early yesterday morning at the crack of dawn and a new password was sent to me; then last night, after I got home from work, I managed to log in after some hoo-haa, and pay the bill.

This morning, when I tried to find the control panel and log into it to see what is there -- nothing worked at all!  Could NOT access it.  After hours of pulling my hair (literally!) -- from 8 a.m. until about an hour ago -- I finally figured a few things out and was able to locate and access the Control Panel.  I was able to confirm that the files ARE there -- well, at least I think so.  There is lots of stuff there under File Manager, and I sure didn't put it there, so it must be the files that Mr. Don uploaded there.  I just have no idea how to get THOSE files published online as www.goddesschess.com. 

Those pages go to about mid-June, 2012.  Mr. Don ran into problems that he was not able to resolve a day or two before he put up a notice on June 20, 2012 that we were taking Goddesschess offline for awhile to do a revamp.  Well, he did do revamps but everything is locked up in his Mac, which is either in storage or his sister has with her.  Will those revamped pages that Mr. Don worked on so hard after his release from hospital ever be published?  I don't know, but I will try my best to get them where they belong -- online.

Guess you could say I'm obsessed, heh?  Well, as I see it, this is a memorial to Don McLean and all that he did for Goddesschess.  I - and Goddesschess - will never be the same without him. 

Later:  Unsuccessful at downloading the May 27, 2012 version of Goddesschess, and I cannot figure out why.  I gave up after tinkering around and trying several different things.  I will try again tomorrow.  In the meantime, I updated (I hope it works) the link to the Way Back Machine which features that version of Goddesschess.com -- it's in the left-hand navigation bar near the top labeled "Way Back Machine."

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Updated January 7, 2013:

Hi everyone.  I looked up the Way Back Machine again today and was able to come up with an April, 2011 version of Goddesschess.  So, that is now linked under the "Way Back Machine" near the top of the left hand navigation bar of this blog -- I hope!  It seems to be mostly all there (at least, as it existed in April, 2011), but many of the original images did not survive - there are lots of those little red boxes with "x"s in them throughout the pages.  I may never be able to reconstruct them because there are four years at least, of Random Round-ups there that Mr. Don did and saved those images to his computer.  And trying to remember what images he may have used and trying to find them and insert them all over again -- ha ha ha!  Are you kidding me?  I can't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday...

Meanwhile, I downloaded all of THOSE old files to my old Front Page program -- it's amazing to me this old desk top has enough space to hold all of those files.  What I tried to do was "import" the entire website as it was saved in that last version at the Way Back Machine.  Now, the question becomes, will I be able to figure out how to organize the files into a navigable website and get it published using my ancient 2001 Front Page program?  I will try.  April, 2011 is much better than the 2007 version of Goddesschess I had.

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Updated January 6, 2013:

Nope, it didn't work.  Oh, when I typed in the name of goddesschess.com tonight in my browser an old website that I published at this particular webhost came up -- I had eliminated most of it years ago but this little bit of remnant was still there.  It was an article I did for our old International Chessoid back in 2000 or maybe 2001.  It's actually pretty damn funny.  But --

So, the files that Mr. Don said he parked at the website, maybe they're not there or -- simply pointing the domain name to them doesn't mean they will suddenly be published.  But that means I'm up shit creek without a paddle, because Mr. Don used Dream Weaver, I've no idea what version, and for sure I have no knowledge of it at all.  Perhaps those files parked there (if they are parked there) can never be published since the command isn't coming from Mr. Don's computer.  I just don't know.  I don't understand how all of this works.

I have a VERY old version of Goddesschess saved on my antique desk top (which I successfully fired-up yesterday after it being off the internet for about two years...) -- maybe that is the only version I'll be able to restore?  Well, at least I figure I can, since it was saved with my old Front Page program, and I KNOW (sort of) how to use front page and get that published to a webhost/website.  We'll see.  That would mean, though, that all of Mr. Don's work since spring/summer of 2007, when we first started Random Round-up, is gone, along with all of the articles he added to Goddesschess from that time forward until he got sick.

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Hola Darlings!

I STILL AM NOT ABLE TO DOWNLOAD A PHOTO OR IMAGE FROM MY COMPUTER HARD DRIVE.  GOOGLE, WHAT THE FLYING F IS GOING ON HERE?????

I have worked and worked and worked to try and get our Goddesschess website back online ever since Mr. Don took it offline in June, 2012 due to ongoing technical issues with our then webhost.

And then he got sick, and I got sick.  And everything went to Hell.

After Mr. Don had his heart procedures in July and left hospital at the end of that month, seemingly cured of his heart ailment, he had also been working to get Goddesschess back online.  But his recovery was long in coming; he was weak and easily tired, and it is entirely frustrating trying to deal with webhosts and domain registrars and how to get things pointed to the right website or vice versa! He was not rallying like we'd hoped he would, and he just did not seem to be getting his strength or energy back, and he continued to lose weight.

While he wasn't getting any better despite his hospital stays, and I was going through my own heart health issues and facing potential surgery and an incurable pulmonary condition that would probably kill me in three years, we had decided just to keep Goddesschess offline for awhile longer, until he or we, or me, were recovered sufficiently to try and figure things out.  I speak from experience of those dreadful months, one's brain just does not work right when one is seriously ill. Then, Mr. Don died unexpectedly on October 12, 2012.

He had handled all of the webmaster duties for YEARS.  I know little to nothing about how all of that works!  I was still operating using the 2001 version of Front Page, LOL, to put together Chess Femme News!  But once he took over with his Dream Weaver and html stuff well - it was all Greek to me.

I have tried numerous times trying to figure out what Mr. Don did and how he did it, and what files were at what webhosts, all for nought.  And so I researched and read and tried to get a handle on what I needed to do and how to do it.  And finally, tonight, I THINK I managed to get the Goddesschess domain pointed to the new webhost.  But I won't know for 24 to 48 hours if it worked. 

Even if it does work, though, although Mr. Don emailed me once (which I can't find, damn it) that he had downloaded all of the Goddesschess files to the new webhost and was trying to figure out how to get the domain pointed to the new host -- I do not have any idea if those files, actually, are at the webhost.  So maybe all of this struggling with the technical aspects to try and get Goddesschess back online could be for nought!  He emailed me that he left those files at our "old" webhost, the one he had so many problems with in the spring/early summer of 2012, pending successful transfer to the new webhost.  The old webhost would be our fallback position if all else failed. 

But I didn't pay renewal for that webhost that was due in early December, and they have been threatening to delete the account and all the files that are there.  So, if the Goddesschess files are NOT at the new webhost, things may be disappeared forever except as what we may be able to figure out how to recover from Mr. Don's Mac when his sister comes back to Montreal in the summer.

Well, all the way around, it's been a big, sad, mess. 

I suppose you're all wondering now why I don't just pay for another year's service with the old webhost, just to preserve the Goddesschess files -- assuming they ARE, in fact, still there, like Mr. Don emailed me that they were -- just in case they AREN'T at the new webhost.  The thing is, I don't know what I'm looking at when I log in at the old webhost, so I can't tell if the files are there or not.  I told you, I'm no techy, and all of this has turned my hair even more grey than what it used to be.  It's a matter of principle, and irrational as it is, I put at least part of the blame for Mr. Don's hard time recovering (well, he didn't, did he) on that damned webhost and it's intractable technical issues that were driving Mr. Don crazy.  He tried to reach technical support numerous times through telephone and email -- and never received a response.  And he asked me questions that I had no idea how to answer.  Like I said, when one is sick, one's brain does not seem to work in its normal way.  I know neither of us were able to handle what seemed to be insurmountable and inpenetrable mysteries!

But that fricking old webhost sure has been emailing me for renewal money!

So, keep your fingers crossed that what I worked on for hours this afternoon and early evening has worked, and the last version of Goddesschess that Mr. Don had uploaded to the new webhost will appear online at www.goddesschess.com.